News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-03-10
CATCHING A BIG SHARK.
The Experience OF an Old Sailor with a
Monster Which Was Fond of Beef.


Monster Which Was Fond of Beef.
@You see was in the brig Maria
bound to New Orleans for cotton on
Fall River account" said a sailor to a
New York Sun reporter. "There were
nine able seamen on board and three
boys, which was tidy crew for a craft
OF that rig. l reckon we was about
thirty-five miles off Cape Carnyveral
when it happened. The doctor was a
scrapin' of some saltpeter off chunk
of beef just abaft the fore rigg n 'ariy
one mornin', when it slipped somehow,
and down it went. Before any one
could pucker his mouth the Dustin big
shark I'm teliin' you of, which he'd fol-
Tered us for three days past, Shoots out
from under the starooard quarter, and
swallers the beef. The doctor was
pretty mad, but the old man raved.
He was that close in his calculatin'
that he was nigh hand to what some
folk would call stingy, and beef cost
money. HIS swore he'd catch that shark
and eat him, and he did it, too. We
got up the hook and Inc, and had
look at the chain and swivel to see all
clear, and then we heaves her over
board with prime bit of pork on. We
had long wait, but the next watch
Mr.. Shark gobbled the whole capoodle
and tried to make Of, but we brought
him up with turn around the cleat
where the starboard main sheet made
fast. Then we got the end of a spare
coil of manila made fit for tops'I hall
iards aft, turned runnin' bovine into
the end on it, slipped the moose down
over the line and then over the sharks
nose by workin him alongside, and so
got the moose around the small of his
back, which is where the tail sprouts.
T'other end we leads to a tall block in
the lee foreriggin', takes it to the cap
stan, and walks around to the tune of
Bound Away Der the Rollin' River
which all the men could sing beauti-
full.
CAS- I was sayin', that 'ers shark had
followed us for three days. We'd been
that ERE time with losing things over
board, all on account OF the shark.
First the mate dropped his diddy box
on the rail. Then the second mate had
SHE'D a rope fender, which it was
solid ball of junk two feet thick, at
over it went. The old man had got
out a proper silk umbrella what LIE
used to keep his beaver hat dry with
when he went ashore. He wanted to
air the umbrella, but the wind out of
the spanker caught it and over it went
all spread out. Last of all the mate,
Mr.. Jameson, had put big music box
on the tafrail while it played the horn
pipe and the second mate danced; but
lurch of the vessel dumped it over,
and that were only the night before the
one what I'm telling you Of
"But we had the shark, and in course
we was a little curious to see how
things would be arranged among the
innards of him when we'd histed him
in and landed him on deck. I was for
slashin' open the brute the moment
we'd got his tail chopped off, but the
old man wouldn't have it.
Yer too impechewus, he said, says
he. Just keep in mind, you may Spite
suthin' what's into it. SO he takes a
knife and goes at it hisself. He makes
a long slit down the belly and then
gradually makes it deeper, taking a
cross-cut on Mr.. Sharks throat in the
meantime. He worked away till about
ready to cut the inside skin, and then
gets hook into the flesh on each side
the slash SO we would open it suddint
when we got the word. When all was
ready he gave a final rip, and there
lay the entire contents of the STUN
mick before u.s."
Eyes" said the young man eagerly.
Eyes? ?"
You'd thought the beef had never
been touched. 1t looked better, if any
thing, than before the doctor lost it.
But the umbrella and the music
box and the other things ?" said the
young man.
"What umbrella"
"Why the silk one the captain lost
overheard"
"In course he lost it overheard, Just
as I was q sayin'. The wind outen the
spanker caught it, and it sailed away
like Portugee man-owar."
well, but what kind of condition
did you find it in when you opened the
shark. Did the ribs get broken? And
was the music-box all right and the
other things?"
Dye mean to ask was them things
into the sharks stummick? Now, look
a-here, young man, don't never YOU
believe anybody that tells you yarns
about the sharks swallering any such
things. What I'm a-sayin' is that that
ERE beef what the shark swalIered
wasn't digested any, and there amt no
stummick ever made, 'ceptin' sailor |
mans, that can get any nourishment |
outer the grub what's served in the
West Indy trade"